hyllis McKay’s (65) reply to Gary:
Hi Gary,
I did receive the two e-mails and I did talk to Pat about the dinner. I will send our order into Bill when I get the checks made out. My daughter and Pat’s daughter will be turning 40 in 2009. We are going to take them to Paris in February to celebrate! Speaking of celebrating, congratulations on thirty years of marriage. That is great that you will be able to go to Hong Kong to celebrate. I spent a week in Hong Kong and had a great time.
I have been getting your e-mails but have been so overwhelmed at work with conferences and learning the new curriculum that was adopted, besides teaching every day, that I don’t seem to have time to keep up with the e-mails let alone writing in response to the ones that jog my memory. Please keep them coming, I just love reading them. Phyllis
Follow up reply from Phyllis:
Gary, I haven’t had any communications from the Department of Defense. With the down turn in the economy, I have heard that more people are joining the military. Hopefully that means they will need more schools and more teachers. Of course my time as a teacher is coming down to a few more years so I don’t know about the time commitment. It still sounds like something I would like to do. I taught in China one summer which was a tremendous experience. You are always welcome to post my small contributions to the cause. I am home sick with bronchitis so I hope to get caught up with your e-mails. Ha! Love Phyllis.
Folks, Phyllis has been a teacher for many years in the Seattle area. Our former High School teacher, Mr. Bob Lykins spent a career working overseas for the Department of Defense Schools after leaving Dunseith in the mid 60′s. Through Mr. Lykins, Phyllis thought this may be a fun thing to do, so she has applied to teach overseas with them. Gary
Phyllis McKay 2007
Neola Kofoid Garbe has Breast Cancer:
Hi Gary,
I’m glad to hear you/Bernadette enjoyed Hong Kong; not surprising! Ha!
It appears I’m now a member of the “health problems” club on your blog. I learned yesterday I have breast cancer. It was detected early/small cluster/hasn’t spread/sounds very treatable, so I’m not too concerned at this time. I have also learned worrying doesn’t help anything, so at this point in time, I’m not concerned/worried about it. I know God is in charge, and I’ll go the route He chooses for me. I’ve told this “joke” for years: Mom, Jim, and Dad all had cancer. I said I wasn’t going to worry about getting it, as I thought 3 out of 4 were pretty good odds. I didn’t think it would be 4 out of 4. So much for that theory! Ha!
I have an appointment with an oncologist on Tuesday. The weather doesn’t sound great on Sunday, so I’m heading back to Minot tomorrow (Saturday).
It was great to receive your Alumni News again, Old Faithful!! 
Neola
Neola, Please keep us posted. Like I told you before, time is not on your side with this one. Our prayers are with you. How can we survive without all those wonderful pictures you provide? Gary
| Message from Trish Larson Clayburgh (73):
Trish, it is my pleasure to pass this Well written wonderful message onto all of our readers. You have given some great advice that we should all be following. Gary Hi Gary, I recently resigned from a job. My boss was shocked and surprised and asked me why, so I stayed up all night writing a letter, and summarizing the comments of my peers. I ended up with some words of advice for my boss which I think is good advice for any leader, in any company. And then I realized, it’s also good advice for parents – I just replaced “staff” with “family”. Because being a parent is the ultimate leadership role. So, I thought I’d share it with you. Feel free to pass it on, and Happy Holidays! Holiday advice for leaders, parents, and teachers: Trust and respect your family, for their expertise is great. Treat them as equals instead of inferiors. They will bend over backwards for you and work hard if you allow them opportunity for challenge and performance based rewards. Every one of them has great talent and integrity. Find out what is each one’s gift and encourage and allow them to pursue their interests in a way that serves the world. Allow imperfection, only intervene if really necessary, and never in a derogatory way. Give sincere praise often, and in public. It shows everyone you see the good that they do. Share your expertise and encourage others to share theirs. Delegate more. Teach. Learn. Relax. Laugh. Smile. Listen. Make eye contact. Breathe. Be human. Break bread together often. Share your best recipes. Lead others to greatness and let them each take over something that you do, so that you can have even more time to help them some more. Applaud their successes, for theirs are also yours. Give permission for your family members to shine and they will light up your sky. Admit your weaknesses and ask for support in the those areas. Show and be yourself, because your true self is wonderful. I wish you all the best, and it is my deepest hope that you will take these comments seriously and get help to make change where it’s needed. Your family’s health depends on it. And because the work of the family is so important to so many people, it is my fervent wish that you will have great success. Good luck and May We All Find Peace, Love, and Fulfillment in the moments we have left to live on this Earth. My hope is that you find much grace, many blessings, and profound support on your journey. With Great Love, Trish Clayburgh, RN, PhD |
Message from Mel Kuhn (70):
Gary,Gary,Gary,
I’m really glad to hear that you had this exciting trip to Hong Kong and this wonderful 30th anniversary of shopping and site seeing with your wife and all………but what about us? Those of us that you got hooked like a bunch of old junkies and then just cut us off cold turkey. I don’t know if we can allow this to happen again. Dick and I talked it over and we were just lost every morning without our daily fix of Gary. If you are planning any more vacations you’re just gonna have to do like Paul Harvey and get a fill in or set aside time each vacation day to take care of us with your laptop or something. If need be maybe we can take up a collection and get you some kind of big fancy one with your own satellite and everything so that you can get us taken care of. Priorities are priorities you know. For me it might not have been so bad, but I had just started trying to quit smoking a couple of days before you decided to just drop us. Boy, it’s been tough. Not to have that morning smoke with my coffee, but no Gary fix….WHEW!!! I had almost broken down and had a conversation with my wife over morning coffee. All kidding aside it’s good to have you back, and I AM glad that you and your wife had a good vacation and anniversary. 30 years is worth celebrating. My wife and I just had our 26th a couple weeks ago. I found it hard to believe that I’ve put up with her that long, but what the heck, I’ve got some underwear I’ve had just as long. Well, enough of that. Later.
Mel Kuhn
Mel, Thank you so much for the compliments, but I’m thinking I should have purchased some waist high boots when we were in Hong Kong, but they wouldn’t have fit in our luggage. All kidding aside, I too look forward to the messages I receive from all of you. I never got hooked on smoking, but my dad was a moderate smoker and he tried many times, unsuccessfully, to quit, so I know it’s a tough. They say each cigarette smoked takes 10 minutes off of your life. Gary
Message/Picture from Susan Fassett(65):
I found this picture in one of my mom’s scrapbooks when I was looking for info on the Thunderbirds. Mom worked at the Gamble store at one time. I think that the boy is Gerald Anderson hanging on the side of the vehicle. Thought there would be some that would enjoy seeing this picture. If anyone would like a copy, please let me know. Hugs and prayers, Susan
Evelyn Pladson’s Obituary provided by Neola Kofoid Garbe:
